MOTUC Hydron

The year so far

Such Professionalism

--Not sure that I’m happy with the sectioned posts I’ve made, lets switch it up a little (comments are welcome)--

Little known fact—I’m scuba certified, or at least I was, gotta find that card somewhere.  Anyway random me trivia aside, I got picked this figure up from my local mailbox last night. Hydron is dubbed “Courageous Leader” on the box, and he must be to wear something like this. Clad in over the top B-movie scuba gear, he looks like he’s coming from “The Creature of the Black Lagoon 6: Waters of Mars”.

New Adventures is my favorite “sub-theme” for the MOTUC line and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for it after the Vintage lines are finished in the 2015 sub. I know that the fan-base is not nearly the crowd that is the POP line. That being said, I think that The New Adventures line is likely for it’s own mini-sub. I just want a Butthead MOTUC blister, is that too much to ask?

I lucked out last year, it was the first year I subscribed and I got both of my completion wants from the line, NA He-Man and Mantenna. Then when the 2014 Sub was announced, Hydron was the March figure. With the exception of Gorpo, all the figures that were revealed were all A/B-list and needed for the line. Glimmer was the only one that wasn’t appealing to me, but hey eye of the beholder and whatnot.

Somewhat off topic rambling over, lets look at the figure…

The Face of Leadership

Finally? Mer-Man has his own He-Man equivalent. That’s all I could really see when I ripped Hydron out of his blister prison. Hydron aka Daniel Ripper Jr is the Courageous Leader of the Galactic Protectors. In the cartoon Hydron and Flipshot when down to Eternia to recruit He-Man in the fight against the Space Mutants. In the new bios for MOTUC, the time-traveling headache is taken out an instead the battle is against The Horde thankfully Spector isn’t needed.

Starship Eternia Back Pack- check

Triton Spear Gun -check

"Blub bluub blub"

Buck Naked

All his stuff

Objectively, there is nothing that space-agey about the figure and it could just as easily fit as a underwater gear Palace Guard. The Four Horsemen have made an excellent update to the original figures design. Even the discolored plastic is present. Hydron features several new tools and they are unlikely to be reused for other characters. The helmet is watertight, I don’t know why I wanted to test that, but there you go. I do wish that the red Vader respirator was a removable piece ala Stinkor, but frankly the fact we got this figure at all makes me happy. If Mer-Man hadn’t been packed with the 2000x head, I think a 2000x variant would’ve been likely. My favorite part of the paint on this figure is the gauntlets; something about the gold and green combo looks great. The metallic silver paint is also much appreciated.

Never going to happen

This is a great figure, blocky armor aside, and one that I never thought we would see in official MOTUC form. The New Adventures of He-Man was my first introduction to the franchise, and really one of the first cartoons I can remember watching. As a whole, Hydron was my most wished for NA figure after NA He-Man, and with him out of the way I need to think of a new “Holy Grail”… Butthead?

Sea Fight

Enemy Ace

Enemy Ace (DC Direct)

Backstory/Ramblings:

Full Frontal

Bio

Last Saturday I was out at the Flea Market near where I live, I go almost every week on an errand run. Usually I just go to see what type of old toys people have, I even picked some REMCO toys from a dealer once. Last week I found this, it’s something that I wouldn’t have thought would turn up in a place like that. It was a semi-MIB Enemy Ace action figure from DC Direct. This is actually one of the oldest toys produced by the company (to my knowledge anyway) made in 1998. It’s a rather large box even when recognizing what’s inside: Ace Himself, a separate helmet piece, a black wolf, and a model of his Fokker DR-1 plane (the propeller even works! —detail here folks). As for backstory on the character, I have only seen him once; even then it was just as a cameo on Batman Brave and the Bold. To sum up what I’ve learned, he’s a slightly more heroic fictional counterpart to Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron).  He’s jumped through time, first appearing in WW1 centered stories, then moving onto stories set in the Second World War (I don’t know if he even exists anymore with all the reboots DC has done in the past). I do however have a compulsion to fill the villains ranks of my (primarily DCUC) DC collection, and this character is obscure enough that I’d wager this is the only version we’ll ever get.

Box Contents

Articulation:

This is a fairly articulate figure for DC Direct’s time (but in comparison to the recent DC Collectables, it fairly poor). The figure has a swivel at the neck and shoulders, both have 360 range of movement even with the jacket. The figure also bends at the elbow, offering 90 degrees of movement. The legs are unusual, the hip joint is strangely similar to the hips of a MOTUC figure but are greatly hindered by the sculpt of the jacket. The figure also has a bend at the knee joint. The wolf is a solid piece of plastic and has no possibility.

Sculpt:

Hans Von Hammer was his name...

Sculpting on this toy isn’t awful, but a few parts seem under detailed (mainly his uniform). The Fur sculpt doesn’t seem to mesh as well in hand, this is the only part of the figure that has a sense of realism, everything else looks like it could only be made of plastic. The yellow piece of the helmet is made of a very pliable plastic that can be moved and displayed in different positions. The wolf seems to be in scale with the figure as well as other 6-7 inch toys.  The plane can almost seat figures that are in micro-machine scale.

Paint Work:

Ghost/Snowball

The paint on this figure is decent, nothing seems to be painted out of place (ala Arkham Origins Killer Croc and his extra teeth) but there seems to be an issue with the helmet. The helmet on my figure has already worn of some of the paint on the face, if you have this figure be extra careful if you remove the piece. From what I’ve seen, the lenses on the helmet should be made of transparent or at least opaque plastic.

In Review:

Sandtrooper... and Brains?

This is far from my favorite DC character, he’s C/D list at best. That being said I’m glad I can add another character to my DC collection. The wolf is my favorite part of this pack (repaint into a baby direwolf?). I’d recommend this figure to anyone that finds it for cheap (as did I) or someone who is a fan of the character. This figure, in box can sometimes be both hard to find and on the pricier side, but if you’re like me, you might randomly luck out.

Where to Find:

              Ebay

Comparison Shot

Grape Soda?

Not--Welchs

          Before I talk about these toys I'd like to say that I've grown up with Legos, as I'm sure many people have. I always liked the Space sets with all those neon pieces. I can' wait for the Lego movie Spaceship set to come out. As a kid I also had a bunch of the late-80's/90's Transformers. At ToyFair a few years ago when Hasbro announced a "Lego" toy-line, I was thrilled. Since then I've come to own nearly every Kreo Transformers release.
         Whats been missing from my collection is the (ignoring those "Battle Ship/Generic Alien+Ocean= Movie) Gi Joe collection. To be completely honest, I'm just not that big of a Joe fan. I never really watched the cartoon and I've had at one point maybe three figures. That being said, I was in TRU the other day and saw some blind-bags in the off-brand Lego isle. I went to pick up some of the Dungeons and Dragons figures (I love all random fantasy stuff), and picked up a Drizzt box and a blind-bag. As I walked out I saw some Joe kreons. My store has some of the most infrequent ship schedules. I hadn't seen any since wave 1. Wave 1 only lasted about a week before vanishing. Feeling like burning a hole in my pocket, I picked up three random bags and went home. What follows below is the result of my somewhat impulsive purchase.

3 GiJoe Blind-Bags

Backstory/Ramblings:

Brace yourselves, this section is gonna be a long one. Not one, but three... count'em three blind-bags are the feature. So to divide them up, lets go bad-guys first (they're always the coolest).

Original 1992

With giant ninja weapon

First-up is my favorite of the lot, "Cobra" Slice. This is also probably the most obscure as well. First released in 1992 as a part of the Ninja Force! (I feel like that should always be yelled in a similar manner to Ninjago!), and subsequently shown on the DIC cartoon (man am I glad that Cobra Commander design didn't stick). The character was revamped for the Valor vs Venom line in the early 2000's. One the show he was voiced by catch-all voice actor Scott McNeil. Here's the characters bio, ripped right off of the always 100% accurate Wikipedia: 

Slice is believed to be a renegade ninja from the Arashikage clan. He is considered Cobra's supreme swordsman. He doesn't know the more silent and subtle ways of the ninja, but he compensates for it with raw strength. His sword attack copies the attack patterns of the scorpions. He is seen, normally, wearing an uwagi with Cobra's emblem over ninja garbs, and he prefers driving the vehicle called "Cobra Parasite".

 I like Slice the most because if all else fails, he's the most generic out of the bunch and who doesn't need more ninjas?

Jaws of Death

Original 1986

Next is also my least favorite, Dreadnok Ripper. This Mad Max-like character isn't one that I would have picked up had I known it was in the bag (but the way I see it, looking at the codes would be cheating).  He does have a neat "jaws-of-life" device, but since he's "The Enemy" he probably puts the people into the cars. What I love about him though is his soda. I think that it's funny how such a rough and tough guy comes with something so random. When I looked it up I found out that the Dreadnok's love Doughnuts and grape soda? (I won't argue, I like those two but a combination might be best to avoid)

His real name is Harry Nod. Ripper was born in Grime Cape, Tasmania.
Ripper was so mean that he was expelled from nursery school for extorting candy from his schoolmates. He is a professional criminal who has spent most of his adult life in various correctional institutions, and is motivated by greed and a malign dislike for the niceties of civilization; he does love motorcycles, however. Ripper specializes in edged weapons and cutting tools, and is known throughout the swamps for using his blade like a cross between a fireman's axe and a can opener to unlock gates and crack safes.

Last up is the only Joe of the bunch--Snow Job. This is the Joe's equivalent to Aquaman. While he may switch up his niche to the Arctic, he seems to be just as useful. I mean the Joe's have the Flagg, Gun-Ho, and Shipwreck (who incidentally was one of my Joe's as a kid) to name a few of their sea advantages. But for the Arctic, there's just Snow Job and maybe like two other guys to help out  and they're are just variants. (Arctic Destro anyone?) While he's not my favorite, he does come with the best accessory- ski's. 

His real name is Harlan W. Moore, and his rank is that of staff sergeant E-6. Snow Job was born in West Rutland, Vermont.

Original 1984

Now including Whirl proportions!

Snow Job was a major Olympic Biathlon contender, who enlisted for the special training and support privileges that the Army gives to Olympic champions. It's been suggested that he got his nickname more from being a con artist, than from his primary military specialty on the arctic ski patrol. His secondary specialty is rifle instructor, and he is a qualified expert with all NATO long range sniper rifles, and the XMLR-3A laser rifle.^[1]
Unlike some of the other environment specialists on the G.I. Joe Team, Snow Job doesn't thrive on the cold, but he accepts that the chilly environments are the best place to showcase his incredible skills. He can ski down a steep slope, while picking off a target at 1,000 yards, and is considered one of the best marksmen on the team. While this allows his teammates to trust him with their lives in the thick of combat, no one wants to be on the receiving end of one of Snow Job's scams. Being conned by Snow Job has almost become a hazing ritual for new recruits. His scams are never outrageous, and he sees them as a way to keep his teammates perceptive and aware.

Everything Else:

Back-Printing!

For being made to interact with blocks, these guys have fairly good articulation. They have ball and socket movement at the shoulders and hips, and a swivel at the hips, wrists, and head. Of the three, Snow Job is the only one without back printing. I would recommend these to anyone that has been a fan of Joe's or just anything blind-bagged. Even if you aren't the biggest Joe fan, such as myself, these are still great little desk toys

A look with "Compatible Brands"

Where to Find:

Toys R Us 
Ebay

He's a Killer

Arkham Origins: Killer Croc 

"He’s a Killer Croc

Sharp claws, scaly green

Large jaw with giant teeth

Guaranteed to rip you to shreds

Ready for his "The Karate Kroc" audition

                                                       Anytime"

Backstory/Ramblings:

This is my first DC Collectables purchase since the change from DC Direct (It’s has been a looong time). Subsequently this is the first version of this character I’ve ever purchased. I can still remember the Killer Croc design from BTAS show, frankly it’s was/is my least favorite design and the only one that seems better in New Batman Adventures. This character first appeared in Batman #524 in 1983 and is one of Batman’s (relatively) newer enemies.  While I’m honestly not this biggest fan, I’d love to see him get a Mr. Freeze level overhaul.

"It was a BIG rock"

Articulation:

This figure is almost perfect in terms of articulation. His shoulders have a great range of movement and are really satisfying to click into place. The figure’s feet are sculpted in a very unusual way; ankle consists of a rocker-type hinge that can keep him flat in almost any pose. Still he does have some problems standing, partially to the weight distribution. If you want to get into any dynamic poses, you’ll have to take a little extra time to set him up. The wrist joint on this figure is previously only one that I’ve seen on archer characters. It allows for a great deal of expressive poses and even lets the figure hold up objects with his otherwise open claws.

Sculpt:

My Vast Arkham Collection

Gentle Giant continues their standard for sculpting. This figure is chunky, in a good chunky kind of way. His back is ribbed with scales and the scales go all the way under the arm. My favorite part of the sculpt are the ripped suspender pieces. Both are made of a softer material than the rest of the figure and don’t get in the leg’s range of motion.

Paint Work:

Teeth! Teeth Everywhere!

For the most part, this figure has excellent paintwork (except for one area). The wash on the arm bandages is particularly well done. The little blotch’s of blood a nice touch. The belt buckle is painted in a much shiner silver than the rest of the figure’s otherwise muted paint scheme. The bleeding from the underbelly to the shoulders is well done as well. Unfortunately my figure has extra dabs of paint on the left side of the head sculpt. White paint travels from the corner of the mouth to the figure’s chin. This is the only blemish on an otherwise perfectly painted figure.

In Review:

Side Note: Millennium Falcon Rock

This figure is as thick as the characters brain power. He’s by far the heavy action figure I’ve ever had. The figure weighs several pounds and is a dense. Seriously, if any Black Water scale debates over Marvel vs. DC erupt (DC), whoever gets this brick thrown at them will surely end up in hospital. Value wise this may be the best DC Collectables has to offer at the moment. At my LCS he was the same price as all the other blister-carded figures ringing up at $24.95. At less than half the cost of the previous Croc, and at nearly the same size, this is a great pick-up. While the character may not be everyone’s cup of tea, at the end of the day he’s a giant crocodile man with street fighter bands and a ridiculously sized pair of trousers that couldn’t even be found in the Big and Tall department.

Scale Picture (Megators armor does fit the figure)

Where to Find:

Entertainment Earth

BBTS

Your Local Comic Shop probably also probably has the figure in stock.

Lord of Power?

Just Who Am I?

I’m a MAN, the MAN? Well lets just say I fit the “Adult Collector” tagline on all of the things NECA makes. Do I collect adults? No that would be weird and I’d run out of self-space after my third neighbor.

Anyway, more on topic, I’m an addict to all things plastic and posable. I’ve been collecting for as long as I can remember, but I had to start nearly from scratch a couple of years ago. While the things that line the shelves in my apartment may have changed, I’m still poised comfortably in my own little Neverland. To start things off, how about a little trip back to the first toy I remember getting and one that I’ve (magically?) been able to keep in one piece.

THE REVIEW:

Opening Ramblings:

Aliens Anonymous

He’s a man from Toran… Earth and possibly the “inspiration”/copied IP for the movie Avatar. The main protagonist of the 1983 Revell action figure line “Power Lords”, Adam Power and his alter ego… Lord Power--if I’m even remembering that right. The Lord of Power was found at some random person’s garage sale in the 1990’s in the prestigious 50 cents bin. Lord of Power is something that I’m surprised hasn’t been used yet by an electric company… Duke Energy: The Lords of Power!

Articulation:

My next single: "Walk Like A Power Lord"

As far as articulation goes, he has an out of this world 14 POA if you count the action feature. The arms have a great range of motion; the only thing I think it’s really missing is a shoulder swivel. The way the wrists are sculpted, I don’t think they could have managed to put in a wrist joint.  His legs, while less articulate, are still decent in the way of movement. The ankles on my figure are very loose and it’s usually hard for him to stand on his own. The leg sculpts hit each other and have worn the paint in that area, not even baby powder could save it now.

Paint Work:

Who's this Jake Sully guy?

 Being more than thirty years old, the paint has seen better days. The main body seems to be molded in orange and the head is molded in a harder yellowish color. Upon a close inspection his feet are molded in a slightly different color than the rest of the body. The head, like many of the early MOTU guys is made of this rubbery plastic. The way the paint has been chipped on the head, it looks like Adam has been working as a lifeguard in-between his fights with Arkus. The alien chest shows the most wear on my figure with a large orange spot on the chest.

Sub Species of Na'vi?

In Review:

This is a figure from my childhood and one that I’m sure isn’t loved by everyone. But the Four Horsemen seem to share my enjoyment of these characters and property. For the past few months they’ve been releasing updated 3 ¾ scale figures based on the original line and its concepts (this figure is about 5 ½ inches).  While I’ve yet to pick up any (do to sell outs) getting Adam and Lord Power will be a top priority.

If any one has a display of SciFi toys, The Power Lords would fit right in.

Score: 10 out of 10 for childhood nostalgia

Where to Find:

Ebay

Size Comparisons